Trump is SO RIGHT on many things, but in this case, he’s not.
At the risk of being attacked here, I must say the following CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM of Trump:
Trump’s comment about the California fire damage being mostly due to “forest mismanagement” is mostly wrong. Forest mismanagement is probably only a fraction of the reason.
After all, there were massive California fires long before humans did “forest management” by thinning and controlled burns.
He appears ignorant about California drought and high wind situations. It seems like he’s thinking like a provincial East coaster who doesn’t know about our California fire problems because it’s usually humid and green in Eastern U.S.
Recall when he bloviated 2 years ago that “there is no drought in California???” He was actually quoting a farmer he spoke to, but the media turned it into his opinion.
He totally blew it because by all standards of drought measurement (e.g. very very low precip for many years), we had a severe drought in California. You and I knew he meant to say that the drought is a market problem as we can usually find ways to produce water, for example, desalinization, if we simply want to pay more for water. But to the average voter, he just made himself look ignorant and insensitive.
As with his campaign comment about China & Japan “stealing US Jobs,” Trump’s bellicose ignorance and poor choice of words costs him (and conservatives) many many votes. I know for sure how that played in Japan is “You Japs are thieves.” As a result of that one statement, many many Japanese (and the Japanese media) turned against Trump. Fortunately he’s won them back by his successes with North Korea.
On China, he is correct to say they are stealing our patented technologies and that’s OK to offend them. They ARE thieves. But not the Japanese.
He could have accomplished the same effect during the campaign by stating the “Japanese and Chinese are OUTCOMPETING US, so we are losing jobs to them.” That’s the same statement without the insult to Japan.
I’m hoping that Trump will mature while in office and learn from his occasional poor choice of words that really backfire on himself.
He could be so much more effective with his trademark strong words if he were just more careful with his choice of words that accomplish the same effect.
Reagan knew this well. Trump doesn’t, but there is time for him to learn.
Very well stated. I would like to add that so many are still missing and families and friends are suffering great tragedies. Not the time to politicize a tragedy on twitter but time for compassion, assurance and yes, assistance.
I am sharing your post.